RT is less than 1-way... WHY?

[salmoneous]

I believe you're mistaken, sal. While they are a well-run airline, so were many of the legacy carriers. The problems the legacy carriers had came from obligations to their unions and aging aircraft fleets, not poor management. And Southwest will be facing both these challenges in the years to come, as their seniority system matures, and their fleet gets older.

In my book, an airline with bad union obligations and aging fleets is almost, by definition, not a well run airline. Problems like that don't just happen.

Keep in mind we are talking about Southwest here, not Jet Blue. This isn't some upstatr, they have been around for 34 years and haven't fallen into the same pitfalls.

Good companies plan for the future and potential problems. Hmm, what can hurt our company over the next few years? Rising fuel costs. Well, let's go spend money today on hedges to protect ourselves. Not the actions of a "lucky" company - the actions of a smart, well run one.

But more to the point, the actions of a good company are to treat your customers fairly and be easy to do business with. Nobody ever described the legacy carriers as customer friendly or easy to do business with. They created one of the most complicated, byzantine systems you've ever seen. Take a look at what this thread is all about.

 

[bicker]

Let's do that: Take a look at what this thread is all about. Finding the right price to offer your products and services at. A well run airline makes sure that the price sensitive traveler doesn't have to pay more because they cannot figure out a way to have a price insensitive traveler pay more.

Southwest got major concessions from their unions early on, concessions that as a successful, profitable airline, they're not getting any longer. All they've done is delayed the inevitable.

 

[salmoneous]

Let's do that: Take a look at what this thread is all about. Finding the right price to offer your products and services at. A well run airline makes sure that the price sensitive traveler doesn't have to pay more because they cannot figure out a way to have a price insensitive traveler pay more.

You know, I never thought about it that way before. But now I understand. All the hoops, all the bad service, all the illogical schemes, they were all there to help me, the price sensitive traveler. I've had it all wrong this whole time. I always thought treating your customers well was more important that complicated schemes to squeeze out the last buck. Thanks for showing me the light.

As for the second part - I think you fundamentally misunderstand the relationship between SW and their unions. But since I've never seen a discussion about unions that didn't turn nasty, I'll bow out now. Enjoy your SW bashing and keep on riding those legacy carriers. Remember, when you get crappy service, they are doing it for you!

 

[manning]

Another thing that has cut into the airline business travel is the discovery of teleconferencing. It's increase in quality has reduced travel. It won't eliminate all business travel, but it is catching on. I remember the first teleconferencing I participated in years ago. What a disaster. There has been a leap in improvement.

 

[bicker]

Enjoy your SW bashing and keep on riding those legacy carriers.

And you enjoy riding the cattle car.

 

[Lewisc]

And you enjoy riding the cattle car.

Actually SW credits the "cattle car" (no assigned seats) to getting passengers to the gate, ready to board, early. In turn they credit this to a faster turnaround time, 30 minutes. This allows SW to run an extra flight per day, per plane which contributes to their profitability.

Assigned seats give the better seats to passengers who book early, assuming no flight changes, or to elite flyers. SW's open seating gives the better seats to passengers who check in early and who get to the gate early.

A pricing model which "gouges" the business traveler fails when those same customers find ways around the pricing (back to back, throw away tickets), decides to book LCC carriers or just decide not to fly and use video conferencing.

There is something wrong when a legacy airline matches a LCC fares, even if it is way below their costs, hoping to drive the LCC out of business. Aside from possible anti-trust issues I have a problem when the down side is a government bail out as opposed to just going out of business.

I lost track of which airlines were in bankruptcy when BUT I give American credit for their mores space in coach plan. It didn't work but it was a good idea. I also give Continental credit for deciding to reduce their flights in the competitive NE--FL routes and devote more of their resources to international flights.